Everything Apple Announced at Today's Educational Event in Under Three Minutes

Apple held its first event of 2018 this morning in Chicago, Illinois, at the Lane Tech College Prep High School. The event's unusual location was due to the fact that it focused on education, marking Apple's first education-oriented event since 2012.

The main draw of the event was a new low-cost iPad with Apple Pencil support, but Apple also announced several other education-focused initiatives for teachers and students. The full event spanned over an hour, but we've recapped everything that's worth knowing in the three minute video below.


Apple didn't live stream the event this morning, but after it was finished, the company shared a full video, so if you want to watch it from start to finish, you can do so on Apple's Events website or through the Events app on the Apple TV.

There were also a few other unannounced surprises that popped up on Apple's site after the event, like new iPhone and iPad cases, new Apple Watch bands, and a Space Gray Magic Keyboard, Trackpad, and Mouse, which were previously exclusive to the iMac Pro.

As with all Apple events, MacRumors provided a live blog and extensive coverage, all of which is listed below so you can catch up if you missed anything:

Hardware

Software

We'll be sharing additional details on the new iPad with Apple Pencil support throughout this week and next, so make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors. For more details about the new iPad, make sure to check out our iPad roundup, which will be updated later today.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
macOS Tahoe 26 Thumb

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.2 With Edge Light

Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1. Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings. macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...

Top Rated Comments

ThomasJL Avatar
101 months ago
No Mac Pro (which hasn’t seen an update since 2013) and no Mac Mini (which hasn’t seen an update since 2014). No iPhone SE (which hasn’t seen any update outside of a storage bump since 2016). No standalone display and no AirPort because those departments were shut down (by the richest company in the world).

But hey, we have new watch bands! That’s more important than all of the products mentioned above. Thanks, Tim! :rolleyes:
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pl1984 Avatar
101 months ago
Boring! People really need to stop hyping these events. At least Apple had the decency to avoid live streaming it.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
usersince86 Avatar
101 months ago
Less than impressed with pricing...

$249 for schools and $299 for "regular" users would make more sense.

Pencil $49 for schools and $69 for all others.

IMHO.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Darth.Titan Avatar
101 months ago
Just stopped by this thread to see the predominately negative opinions and unrealistic expectations for an education event.

Was not disappointed. :rolleyes:
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9081094 Avatar
101 months ago
The whole event could've taken 3 minutes, too.

It was too long not really to announce anything much. It's not that this stuff isn't cool, it's more like Apple should have been very clear that they weren't going to talk about anything that was not school-related.

As it were, they already let slip that they had more accessories coming (cases, watch bands, etc) and this made people think they were FINALLY going to release the AirPower and the Qi case for the AirPods.
Even the new watchbands are YAWN. Seriously what’s coming out of a company the size of Apple these last 6 years?

Apple is bigger than Google and for Google it isn’t even its core business. It seems google is razor focused and Apple has lost the way. Apple is hyping future products like the airpad and by the time it sees finally daylight, most competitors already have better, cheaper comparable products.

It’s time a good visionary leader with more passion for tech than profits shows the way.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
101 months ago
The new iPad is missing a smart connector. Such a glaringly obvious omission. Students more than most users will need a keyboard. Not being able to use the Smart Keyboard is so strange, specially after teachers asked for non Bluetooth keyboards to avoid pairing problems and Apple has already deployed a low cost, simple solution. It’s inexplicable how they left that out.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)